


the Story of Steven Sableye Stone

by Insecuriosity



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Transformation - Fandom
Genre: Character Turned Into a Ghost, Gen, Ghost pokemon to be accurate, Reborn - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-14 01:42:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12997086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insecuriosity/pseuds/Insecuriosity
Summary: During an Excavation in an unscouted cave, Steven unearths a gemstone unlike any he has ever seen before. But before he can bring it back to study, the cave he is in collapses.When he wakes up, he is no longer in the same cave - or even in the same body for that matter!





	1. The collapse

There was truly nothing more special than this, Steven thought to himself. Kneeling in the dust from his work, a mining light on his forehead, his face-mask hanging unsued around his neck, searching through his backpack for a snack - he was at his happiest. 

Cradily was the only pokemon out of its pokeball today, quietly standing a bit behind him. As much as Steven loved his pokemon, he enjoyed the silence and solitude that came with his work, and Cradily shared his interests in fossil. Armaldo, Aggron and Skarmory much more enjoyed digging and testing their strength or speed.   
Steven unwrapped his berry-bar and took a bite, the starchy taste of oran berry filling his mouth. It wasn’t a flavour he really cared for that much, but the bars were filling, and at this point he’d begun to associate them with his treks through the Hoenn mountainrange. 

It had been a while since he’d last gone on one of his expeditions. Having become Champion of the League had really eaten away at his free time, and Steven had found himself in offices and meetings far too often for his liking. He could no longer pack up his rucksack and go out to look for a cave – he didn’t have the time.   
Steven had been on his way to Granite cave when his father had called him with news. Someone had stumbled upon an undiscovered cave! Naturally, Steven _had_ to go there right away, and here he was. 

The cave had turned out even better than Steven had hoped. After clearing out a few obstructions with Metagross’ help, it had been easy to navigate the tunnels. The Pokemon in the cave were mostly Onix and Steelix, the layout was straightforward, and there were a lot of spots fit for digging!   
It would take a while to properly catalogue everything and protect the more intact specimens, but once that work was done, this cave could become a wonderful attraction. It wasn’t quite as other-worldly as the Meteor Falls, but it could become a great place for travellers to meet and battle. 

A soft touch jolted Steven out of his thoughts, and he looked at his Cradily. One of its petals had reached out to touch his cheek.  
“What-...? Oh, you must be hungry-” Steven said, and he held out his berry-bar towards the pokemon. “Here you go, have a bite.” 

Cradily shook and nudged the bar away, pointing vaguely at Steven’s wrist. Ah, he should have known, it was already rather late. Cradily had a biological clock that could put watchmakers to shame. Steven stroked a few of its thick petals as he answered. “Yes, I know it is late, but I think I’m going to stay.”

The Cradily made a rather offended sound.

“If this is about my meeting with the Elite Four – I will cancel it. They should be used to it by now. I’m staying. It’s been too long time since we were in a new cave together, and I really don’t feel like getting any of you hurt during ‘training’.” Steven said. “Drake never bothered to teach that Salamence to watch out with its power.” 

Cradily bristled, shaking its leaves in denial, and Steven let out a half-amused huff. “Oh I see – this is about your tv-show isn’t it? 

Cradily rustled, a little softer, and Steven laughed as he rubbed his hands over the thick oily petals of his pokemon. “Don't worry, I made sure to tape it, just in case. And I taped Metagross's and Aggron's too.”

Cradily rustled again, almost relieved, and Steven’s previous transgressions were forgiven as the large pokemon folded himself against Steven's back and over his shoulder. Steven patted the large pokemon absentmindedly, and finished the last few bites of his berry-bar.   
“I’ll prepare some real food for us later, after I’m done with this.” He said to Cradily, and he scratched his fingers between the roots of Cradily’s thick leaves. 

The patch he was working on was somewhat of an oddity. It was a discoloured piece of sandstone, right between two earth-plates. The two kinds of stone were not created under the same circumstances and really shouldn’t be found together like this unless it was the work of a Pokemon.  
Torkoal and Macargo liked to make their nests out of molten stone, and a lot of Pokemon used Earthquake to shift the crust of the earth but Steven hadn’t seen any of those pokemon since leaving Mt. Chimney. 

In short, this digging site was too interesting to leave unattended. 

Steven put his breathing mask back over his nose and mouth, and grabbed his tools. Slowly but surely he worked at the stone with his chisels, watching the stone slough off in thicker and thicker slabs. Some of the shards almost resembled modern types of wall-plaster, and Steven collected several samples in plastic bags to study back at home.   
The stuff looked mundane, and was probably boring to anyone but fellow Geologists, but Steven had never heard of its kind before. The results would be interesting, if only for how it had been created and in which layer of the earth.

Steven’s chisel hit a bad spot, and Steven startled backwards as the rest of the stone crumbled. A thick wave of fine dust blew in his face, and Steven shielded his eyes from the assault.

“Ack!” He coughed. He hadn’t had his mask on exactly right, and a good whiff of dust had made it past. “Pleh- cough-cough! T-that never becomes any less surprising!”   
Steven wiped the dust from around his eyes as quickly and carefully as he could. His Cradily was making excited little sounds, and Steven knew that they had hit something interesting. 

A perfectly round gem sat embedded in the brittle stone, banded with swirls of yellow, red and purple. Steven let his fingers graze the surface, and jerked away when warmth touched his fingertips. His Cradily tried to look over his shoulder, and one of its massive flower-petals obstructed Steven's view.

“Cradily, I can’t see-!” 

He pushed away Cradily's leaf, and scrutinised the stone. It looked almost impossibly whole and round, and it was polished to a shine as if an artist had created it. To an untrained eye, it would look like a marble, but Steven knew better. This was not glass.   
“Cradily, step back for a bit please. This calls for precision.” Steven said, and he took out his smallest tools, carefully scraping at the sandstone to get the mysterious stone out of the wall.

Almost too good to be true, the rock around it crumbled away easily. Within minutes, Steven held the impossibly perfect orb in his hand. It was still warm and almost clammy or oily, like it had been held on someone's hands.  
Steven stood up, and held it up higher, angling his flashlight to shine more directly at the stone. “Cradily- have you ever seen something like this?”

Cradily rustled. Negative. 

Steven angled the stone back and forth, studying the patterns inside. It looked beautiful, but Steven had no clue how it could have been shaped like this. The pattern itself was already impossible to have been created naturally, and the round perfect shape could not be a coincidence. 

“…Unless there’s more of them.” Steven finished. He looked back at the sandstone wall and the few traces of grey stone still left, and he knew that he would be skipping dinner tonight. Maybe even sleeping. It was a good thing he’d taken pre-made food and a sleeping bag with him. 

He carefully put the stone in his pocket, and zipped up the zipper.

Now, Steven was adept at reading the sounds and sights in a cave. He had spent most of his childhood in the caves near his home, and most of his teenage years being dug out of collapsed tunnels of his own make.   
It was very common to hear disputes between big rock and ground pokemon. It was run of the mill to see churned earth and thrown boulders and cracked plates wherever there were big Pokemon. At the same time, any tunnel that showed signs of having been there for more than three years was a tunnel strong enough to explore. 

So when the sounds of grinding earth and stone began echoing down the tunnel, Steven was not worried. When a light layer of dust began raining down, he wasn’t worried. Cradily was silent. 

When a Stalactite crashed onto the cave floor only a few meters from where he was sitting, Steven jerked free from his focus on the stone. 

For a moment he sat frozen, trying to judge if he should run or not. The far-off roar from a furious Steelix seemed to vibrate the very earth, and most worryingly – it didn’t stop after the roar stopped. The trembles in the stone got worse, and the telling cracks of stone sounding from further down the tunnel were what finally jumpstarted him into action. 

He practically pounced on his backpack, and fumbled to get his pokemon out of their balls. 

Cradily was staring up at the ceiling, leaves trembling and eyes as wide as they could go. There were more than a few cracks forming in the stone, snapping and groaning as they went, and dust rained down on top of them. Steven’s throat was already feeling as dry as a desert when he called out his pokemon. He didn’t want to know what happened to a pokemon if they ball was crushed while they were still in it.   
“The tunnels are collapsing!” He yelled as soon as they were out of their pokeball. “Run! Follow me!” It was fortunate that he favoured ground and steel types, or the boulders that dropped from the ceiling might have crushed them

They ran as fast as they could through the tunnels, accompanied by frantic geodudes and zubats. Steven’s eyes burned when the dust became too much to blink away, and he tried to block the dust from his lungs with one of his sleeves. His pokemon could have gone faster than him at this point, but they didn’t know the way out. Armaldo and Aggron were pushing and pawing at the ceiling of the tunnel, trying to hold it open by acting as support, and Cradily shielded Steven from falling rocks.   
The tunnels were collapsing in on themselves, and Steven watched in a detached horror as the ceiling of the cave gave in and collapsed. 

It was Metagross that saved him from being squished under the stone, by throwing itself over Steven and taking the weight of the mountains on its back. Steven tasted the floor of the cave as sand and rocks slid over Metagross’ back and in between its legs.   
More and more crumbled down, and slowly Steven and Metagross were buried underneath the rubble. Steven could hear the loud cracks of rocks hitting rocks becoming more muted, until they were nothing more than distant thumps – like he was hearing them through a wall. 

Finally, after what seemed like ages of rumbling and sharp dry breaths, the collapse came to a stop. Metagross didn’t move an inch, and Steven just breathed. Was he hurt? He couldn’t feel anything but soreness. He spat out the taste of mud. “Metagross- can you see the others?”

His pokemon replied with a strained grunt. Without seeing its body language, the answer could be interpreted as anything. Steven took it as ‘I don’t know.’  
“Of course not- we’re buried...” He said quietly. His pokemon were all rock, steel or ground types, but he didn’t know if they were built for a collapse like this. Technically speaking, pokemon like Skarmory didn’t live underground, and Cradily had been classified as bottom dwelling sea pokemon. 

Metagross let out a worried, strained sound, and Steven placed his hand on the pokemon’s closest leg. “The others- I don’t…. I don’t know how they’ll hold up in a collapse like this. Can you move?”

Metagross rumbled uncertainly, and Steven could feel the pokemon’s body begin to tremble with strain. One of Metagross’ feet lifted off the ground - and Metagross lost his balance. Steven had a heart-stopping moment where he thought that his pokemon would fall on him, but Metagross did not fall. It wobbled and grunted, and bled a small stream of silvery liquid, but it did not fall.   
The answer to his question was very clear. No, Metagross could not move. 

“Okay. You can’t move.” Steven breathed. “That’s okay- we’ll find a way out of this.”

The space underneath Metagross was small, and Steven wiped the dust off his mining-light. He had to dig away some dirt to even reach his pocket, but in a small mercy his Pokenav was still intact. He flipped the thing open, and squinted at the harsh light from the screen. His father was on the first dial, and he tapped his name. He knew very well that reception in the caves was bad, but he had to try.  
The Nav dialled one time, before it showed its error message. 

‘Cannot connect to Hoenn network. Please try again later.’

“No, come on...” Steven mumbled. He tried again, and again – and again- ... “I don’t have a signal.” He said. “….I’m not getting any signal at all.” Metagross let out a high, whimpering sound. Steven knew that sound intimately. Metagross had made those same sounds when he was still a Beldum – when he’d been scared, and hiding in Steven’s jacket.  
Steven shifted a few uncomfortable rocks out from under his stomach and legs, and rolled onto his back. He rested a hand on the cool steel of Metagross’ belly, where he knew that Metagross’ could feel it. “Don’t worry.” Steven said. “We’ll be alright. I will start digging a way out, and we’ll be able to tunnel to the outside.” 

Metagross rumbled a little, and its high whimper faded away. 

“That’s my pal.” Steven said, and he turned back onto his stomach again. “All you need to do, is try to hold out as long as you can. We’ll find a part of the tunnel that hasn’t collapsed, and if we fail at that, we might get into range of the Hoenn Pokenav network.”

Metagross rumbled, and Steven began digging. 

The first few rocks were easily dislodged, but it didn’t take long before his progress slowed down. For every rock he pulled away, another load of sand and grime would flow in place. For every scoop of sand he dug through, he’d find a boulder too large to move on his own.   
He was running out of places to dig, and Steven didn’t want to think about what that meant. 

It was getting harder and harder to breathe. Steven’s throat was as dry as paper, and he panted through his mouth as he worked. Metagross had started to tremble from strain, and was making its whimpering little noises again.   
It wasn’t too long before Steven started to feel like there was no more air to breathe. His digging slowed down, and became clumsy. He grabbed the wrong rock and his efforts collapsed, blowing dust into their little hiding hole. Steven coughed, and gasped for air, grasping at Metagross’ body.

“Metag-” Steven tried to speak, begging for the comfort and protection that his pokemon offered, but it came out like a gritty whisper. He had to cough again, because his lungs were itching and burning like he’d inhaled paralysing spores, but there was almost no more air to inhale. 

Steven couldn’t find the breath to dig for freedom, and deliriously he began to wonder if any of his pokemon would make it out.  
Metagross was strong, but they had been so deep, and did it even remember how to dig? Aggron could make it, but Scarmory, Cradily, the others-… They needed to breathe. 

“M-ta-gross” Steven rasped, and he pressed himself closer to his pokemon. He fought for air. His hand slipped away from Metagross’ flat underbelly, and his vision began turning black. Metagross was no longer attempting to be quiet in its whimpering, but there was nothing left in Steven that could offer comfort. 

He sank away, and did not wake up again.


	2. Burial at Mt Chimney

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter, as told by Joseph Stone, Steven's father.

It was a beautiful day in Hoenn. The harsh rains from the day before had cleared up just that morning, and the sun was making the sea glitter. Large clouds of Wingull and Pelipper roosted on banks of sand or floated on the waves, filling the air with their squawks.

Joseph Stone stood at the railing of the ferry and wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was far too warm of a day to be wearing black, but it felt wrong to go to a funeral in any other colour. Still, out of all the things that had happened in such a short amount of time, it was just a minor annoyance. Joseph stared at the horizon, where Mt Pyre was rising out of the sea. 

“Do you suppose he would have wanted his funeral to be on such a sunny day?” Joseph asked quietly. 

Steven’s Aggron made no sound, and glared into the waves intensely. Its armour still bore many injuries from when it had been crushed under the mountain, and it was missing a claw. 

“Maybe he would have liked a burial at Meteor falls better.” Joseph murmured to himself. 

“Grawww…” Aggron growled low in its throat. Joseph had gifted this very pokemon to Steven when it had still been an Aron. It had been Steven’s seventh birthday. A little early for a child to be introduced to a pokemon, especially when it was a pokemon-family with a harsh temper, but Joseph had felt that Steven could handle it. A fluffier pokemon would not have fit in with his son.   
Even back then, Steven was obsessed with crystals and fossils. His friendships with other children suffered because of it, but Aron had been a perfect fit. A pokemon fit for digging and underground work, and interesting enough to invoke curiosity and respect from Steven’s classmates. 

Joseph had no idea if Aggron intended to stay near Steven’s home. It was the only survivor of the incident. After the emergency team had reached Steven’s location, it had taken quite a few battles before it’d been tired enough to stop bothering the emergency workers.   
Joseph had been there, or so he had been told. The time spent on that rocky mountain side and in the Lavaridge PokeCentre had all passed in a blurr. Some part of Joseph was still in that Poke-centre, waiting for news on his son. 

The ferry came to a halt, and Joseph stepped onto the arrival platform of Mt Pyre. Other visitors filed out behind him. Many of them held flowers or a trinket to remind them of their lost ones.   
The members of the Elite Four were there as well, quietly offering their condolences as they walked past him. Even Drake had come – even though Joseph knew how much the old sailor loathed funerals. 

Phoebe had forgone her usual attire and Joseph barely recognised her when she shook his hand. She’d switched out her cheery Alolan-attire for a suit with knee-length skirt, her short hair hidden in an old-fashioned hat. “It is a beautiful day on Mt Pyre.” She said. “When the weather is like this, the mists are thinner, and the sun shines through. There are no better days for a burial.”

“I suppose you’d know best.” Joseph replied. “I wasn’t too sure of the location myself. I-… He might have preferred a burial at Shoal cave, or Meteor falls, but….” He couldn’t really finish the sentence. It was for his own reasons that he had wanted Steven’s burial at the peak of Mt Pyre. It felt wrong to bury his son in a cave, when a cave was what had stolen him away. It was too much to take. 

Thankfully, Phoebe didn’t ask him to continue. “Maybe.” She said. “I suppose we won’t know.” 

The silence between them stretched as they walked into Mt Pyre. For once, the gloomy and dark atmosphere of the mountain didn’t bother Joseph. It fit his mood. The old gravestones and soft sounds of sobs scuffing feet were a far better fit for his grief than a happy Hoenn sun playing on the waves and the playful barks of Seels and Spheals.   
Between the graves, Joseph could see dark little shapes flickering in and out of existence. Maybe one of those little shuppets was a remnant of his son. Nothing but a shadow, still clinging to life in the form of a Pokemon… 

Together with Phoebe and Aggron, he walked up the stairways towards the peak of the mountain. Joseph felt as if the weight of his shoes tripled with every step as a familiar question burned at the back of his throat. He didn’t even know if he hoped the answer would be positive or not.

“Miss Phoebe?” He asked, deliberately slowing his pace up the staircase. 

“Yes?” 

“You are an expert on Ghost pokemon, am I right?”

Phoebe’s expression barely changed, her sad smile still present, even though she must have realised what Joseph was about to ask her. “Yes I am. I’ve spent most of my childhood on this mountain, speaking with the pokemon here.”

“I think you know what I am about to ask, but you’ll have to forgive me.” Joseph said. “I ask you; Is Steven here with us?”

The corners of Phoebe’s mouth turned downwards, and she stopped on the stairs. She looked even less like the cheerful girl he so often spotted on TV during the Elite-4 challengers.   
“That’s not a question I can answer, Mr Stone.” She said. “People…. Nobody knows what makes a spirit decide to stay behind, or what happens to who they used to be.”

She shut her eyes tightly, and Joseph felt a shudder run down his arms as a Duskull materialised above Phoebe’s shoulder.   
“Becoming a Ghost pokemon – not everything is preserved of their personality.” She continued, and she lifted a hand to the Duskull that was hovering near her. “There’s a reason that all Banettes dislike children. There’s a reason why Haunters play tricks, and Gengars cause accidents. There’s a reason for why groups of ghost pokemon share the same behavioural traits.” 

She stared at the Duskull, and then produced an Ipapa berry from her handbag, offering it to the pokemon. With a lunge that looked almost aggressive, the pokemon bit at her hand and phased through it – taking the berry with it.   
“If Steven comes back, he won’t be the person you knew.” Phoebe smiled a little mirthlessly, and scratched the old bandages around the Duskull’s head. “It is better if you don’t look for him. If he comes to you, and you recognise him, then you can work from there. But to go looking for them, I can’t recommend, Mr Stone.”

“I see.” Joseph said, and they resumed their travel up Mt Pyre in silence. 

Her words were no surprise, but they snared his throat shut none the less. He had heard them said to him before, at a different funeral.   
His wife had not become a Ghost Pokemon either after she had passed away. Joseph knew that it was not a fate people wished for their loved ones, but he couldn’t help but want to see his son again, and speak to him. Even if it was only through drawn pictures or crude sounds, there were suddenly hundreds of things he still had to say. 

He lingered at the exit to Mt Pyre, and watched a few more groups of people pass them by. Phoebe waited near him. 

“Are you ready to go through the door?” Phoebe asked. 

Joseph thought about it for a while. Was he ready? Was he ready to see yet another vital part of his life sink into the ground forever?   
“Yes.” He said, because what other choice was there? 

He stepped out into the daylight. He shook hands and accepted platitudes from everyone who had come to pay their respects. He listened to the chimes of the Chimechos on Mt Pyre and the words of the elderly couple that cared for the dead. He walked up to the closed casket in which his broken son was going to be buried, and he speeched. After that, there was cake and coffee, and stories about Steven’s life.

Joseph stayed for a long time after the service, dreading to go back to the emptiness of his house. Only when a looming stormcloud threatened to break open above the mountain did he go on the ferry towards Rustboro city.   
There was still a lot of work to be done in his office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here on, I have about 3 more chapters that need to be edited into readability, and it might take a while before I get the time and energy to get to them. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! 
> 
> You can contact me at insecwrites.tumblr.com


	3. Waking up purple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven wakes up, certain that he has been rescued - but there are no people around him. His pokemon are gone, and this is not any cave he recognises. And... are those claws ?

When Steven woke up, he was lying on something hard with a heavy weight on his back. Memories of the collapse came drifting through the fog of his mind, and everything was dead silent. and all he could smell was earth and rock. Something was off - where was his headlight?

He struggled to move, wincing at the stiffness of his fingers. Everything in his body felt like it was tingling, as if he’d lost circulation in all his limbs for a long while. 

“Metagr-?” Steven tried to speak, and got a nice mouthful of sand and grit as his reward. He reached around to try and find Metagross, but his hands only found soft and fine earth. It almost felt like ash, or pulverised volcanic stone.   
Where were the rescuers? He couldn’t hear any human voices, or much of any other sounds, but he could breathe again, and his backpack was gone. 

His jacket was missing too, and his socks and shoes... Someone had undressed him. 

“Metagross?” He coughed, and began digging himself out. The earth around him had the texture of dried beach sand – a tough layer over soft sand - and it fell apart at just a simple touch.  
It took no time at all before air brushed Steven’s face, and he was hanging out into the open. A short distance below him, he could hear the grit and rock from his digging falling to the ground.

It smelled like salt water and earth, the air almost seeming saturated with minerals. Carefully, Steven let himself slide down. Despite a startling lack of any Lightsource, Steven could see the cave in front of him – outlined in an odd monochrome grey. It was huge, crusted with salt, and completely empty. 

“H-llo? Is anyone t-here? Aggron? Metagross?” Steven called out. His voice was a gritty croak, sounding almost as dry as his throat felt. He didn’t recognise the cave in front of him. “Is… is this a dream of some kind?” 

It wasn’t unfeasible. Pokemon had powers beyond what science could explain, and there were plenty of pokemon that liked to play tricks on people. Usually, though, it was easy to spot the seams of an illusion – or spot the Pokemon responsible for hypnosis. 

Not this time, however. There was only the sound of falling sand and dripping water. There was not even the slightest evidence of the Earthquake that had happened just a sort time ago.

Carefully, Steven stuck out a hand to test if the grey outlines he was seeing were real or imagined. It wouldn’t be the first time he imagined seeing things in the dark, and it was all too easy to break a leg when walking blindly.   
His hand connected with the cave wall, exactly where his eyes told him it was, but Steven’s attention was no longer on the cave around him. Instead of his pink, human hand, he saw a jagged stubby limb touching the wall.

Instead of five fingers, there were three, sharp and unpleasant claws. Further up his arm, unnatural spikes jutted out of his skin, cresting at the tips of his elbows. Slowly, Steven’s eyes trailed past his arm – to his right, clawed hand, his three-toes clawed feet, a smooth round gem, right above his stomach-

“What…What-?” Steven whispered. Was he dreaming? He turned his hands over, staring at the gap where his ring finger should have been, and he touched his lips, feeling jagged teeth instead of flesh.  
Still caught in disbelief, he ran his hands over his face until his fingers touched over the edges of his eyes. Or rather; the cool protruding gemstones sitting where his eyes had previously been. 

After spending a small lifetime searching in caves for rare rocks or fossils, Steven would have been hard-pressed not to recognise his body as a Sableye’s. It was a common pokemon in deep caves – oftentimes rumoured to steal the spirits of lost explorers and miners.   
Slowly, Steven folded his legs under him and leaned against the wall, not quite capable of tearing his eyes away from his claws. 

“Okay. Steven-” He said to himself, trying to wrestle himself back into control. “This is no reason to panic.” 

Yes it was.

“There’s a number of explanations for… for this.”

The most common one being something he did not want to consider as a possibility. 

“We live in a world of powerful, mysterious creatures-…” He faltered, and slowly flexed his claws into fists. The tips of his claws dug into his skin, and he could feel it crumble instead of break. His skin looked like it was crusted with a thin layer of faceted crystals, and he looked away. With his new form, it seemed blinking was something of the past. 

Were his Pokemon still buried?? 

Steven jumped up, and began walking down a random direction in the cave. Without his Claydoll’s keen senses, his PokeNav, or Aggrons Digging, it was going to be a tall order to find the exit, but he couldn’t stay inactive.   
Peering desperately into the dark, he looked for the telltale scuffmarks that were left by nesting Zubat or Wingull. 

It was unlike any cave he had been in before. Thick crumbling salt crystals hung from every surface, virtually undisturbed, and there wasn’t so much as a Geodude or an abandoned nest.   
To Steven, it was thoroughly uncanny to see any part of the world so abandoned. He’d always enjoyed the calm inside of caves, but even in the most desolate places he would see Pokemon at every turn. And a cave of this length and size should, by all means, be swarming with pokemon – so why was it empty? 

His answer came only a few moments later, when he turned a corner and came face to face with a Lairon. Or rather, face to chin. Had Lairon always been so large?   
Steven had to crick his neck back until it hurt to look the other Pokemon in the face – it filled the entire tunnel with just its body, and its angry growl made the cave tremble. 

“HEY! What are ye doing in my home?!” The Lairon growled. “How did ye get in here?!” 

Steven stumbled back. Having raised his own Aron, and subsequently a Lairon and Aggron, he knew just how hard one of their headbutts landed – and how territorial they could get.   
He was not fast enough however, and the Lairon’s head butted into his gut, knocking him down onto his behind. Not a moment later, the Pokemon’s collosal weight began to press down on him, pinning him to the ground. Steven would have gasped for air if he could have. 

“What are ye then, eh?” The Lairon growled, and it began sniffing at Steven’s head. Pinned and startled, Steven could only think of how odd it was that a second evolution sounded so much like an old crotchety man. “ … An Egglet…?” Lairon muttered

“I- I’m lost.” Steven replied. His voice was raspy and high, but still very much audible. “I didn’t mean to… invade your territory.” 

“Wha-?! Yer quite the talker for an egglet.” The Lairon stepped back, finally releasing the heavy weight onto Steven’s stomach and squinting at him all the while. “Oh I see… yer one o _those_ kinds of egglets. A little ghost. Never thought I’d live ta see one o yer kind.”   
Lairon stepped back, and watched as Steven struggled upright. “…Yer not here to haunt _me_ are ye?”

“No.” Steven replied automatically. “It’s - … I need to get out, I have something important to do.”

“Ye, I bet… ” Lairon muttered. “Follow me then, quickly.”

It took a bit of unwieldy shuffling, but then the Lairon had managed to turn himself around, leading Steven to the exit of his home. Even with the boon of perfect nightvision, Steven was having trouble keeping up with the larger pokemon, but it felt right to be hurrying. Any second counted.   
Together they thundered through the maze of Lairon’s home, and it didn’t take long before Steven began to hear the tell-tale rushing of the ocean’s wave. The air began to smell of salt and scum, and Steven could see the greyish tones of his nightvision making place for sun-touched colours. 

“Almost thar!” The Lairon grunted, and a few paces later the two of them burst into he light. 

Despite having seen the increase in light, Steven was still caught off guard at just how bright it was outside. The sun was low on the horizon, but instead of its common orange red glow it was white hot to his eyes.   
There were no eyelids on a Sableye, but Steven could _feel_ something changing in his eyes themselves – the gems darkening until his eyes no longer hurt and the sunlight became orange instead of white. 

They were on a rock in the water – barely deserving of the name ‘island’. Right where Lairon’s home ended, there was a steep rocky slope leading to jagged rocks being battered by the sea. 

In the distance, just barely visible against the setting sun, Steven could see a small island, sprinkled with small houses and a single huge centre. Towering out over the rest was a rocket, with its nose pointed up towards the sky.   
“Mossdeep city.” Steven breathed. How could he have ended up all the way back here? He had been near Lavaridge – as far away from Mossdeep as one could get without going to Dewford island. 

“Moss what now?” The Lairon blinked, and then peered at the island. “There’s barely any moss on there…”

Even at this distance, Steven could see people and their pokemon walking the streets. Judging by how many people were flocking to the beaches and leaving the sea, the ice cave was emptying out its water. Steven let himself slide down the rocky wall, and stuck a hand into the sea. It was indeed cold, but nothing he would have been unable to weather as a human.   
But that was the thing, wasn’t it. He wasn’t a human anymore. Could he still swim that distance as a Sableye? Could his body withstand the cold – could he fight a battle with any wild Pokemon he encountered? Lairon’s attack had knocked him down flat, and that had been just a warning! 

Another wave rolled in and sloshed against his shins, and Steven drew back. A lump formed in his throat – was there any way to make his way back to Lavaridge before he was too late to save his Pokemon?   
Doubt suddenly gripped him, and he stared at the water in front of him. How much time had passed between the collapse and now? He couldn’t see the plants of the island well enough to judge from here, and the island he was standing on right now was nothing more than rocks, dirt, and tough stringy grass plants. 

He craned his head and looked up at Lairon. His steel armour was gleaming painfully in the sun, and he was staring down at Steven with a confused expression.  
“What is the date?” He only had to glance at Lairon’s increasingly baffled expression to know that the Pokemon had no useful answer. Pokemon didn’t know about calendars and dates – at least not Ground and Rock types. “Is it still summer?” 

“Er, ye?” 

“Is it the same-… No, no you wouldn’t know that, do Pokemon even keep track of the years?” Steven shook his head. He couldn’t seem to dislodge the image of his pokemon, starving or suffocating in the earth- maybe already dead and being eaten by Nincada’s.

“Lad, you’re workin yerself into a tizzy.” Lairon grumbled down at him. “Why don’t you calm down, and ye can stay in my home, hm?”

“How do I get off the island?” Steven asked, his voice steadier than he felt. 

“Right now, ye can’t.” Lairon replied. “I picked this place as my turf because it’s not easy for other Pokemon to get to. Nothin to eat, no real beach for the spheals to roll around on. Jus’ some noisy Wingull here ‘n there… An egglet like you would get gobbled up by the first Tentacruel that spotted you.”

Steven shivered from the tips of his pointy ears to the claws on his toes. “They would, wouldn’t they?” He whispered to himself. He no longer had Scarmory or Cradily to protect him, or a PokeNav to signal for help.   
Almost as if to prove a point, a group of carvanha breached the surface of the sea – suddenly so much larger and frightening… 

The Hoenn seas were well known for how many pokemon lived in them. The seas positively teemed with all kinds of species and sorts, to the point where they supplied almost a quarter of the world’s seafood without putting a notable dent in fish Pokemon populations.   
In short, the chances of encountering something hostile and hungry were high, and Steven had no way to protect himself. 

“Tomorrow, I’ll swim ya over.” The Lairon broke him out of his thoughts. “I can’t swim in this cold, but early tomorrow should be alright. I need to stock up on food anyway.”

Steven ground his teeth, and stared at Mossdeep city in the distance. 

“Why don’t you come into my home, I’ll see if I got something you can eat, hm?” Lairon shifted, and a small collection of rocks rolled down into the water. “Opp! Damn tiny ledge…”

“… Alright.”

It took a while for Steven to master climbing back up to Lairon’s home. The steps the Pokemon had carved out for himself were large enough that Steven had to hoist himself up every time, and by the time he had reached the top he was lightheaded and weak.   
He shuffled after Lairon, and tried futilely to distract himself. It wasn’t long before the Lairon took a turn and guided Steven into a round enclave. A mound of dried grass and weed was taking up almost half of the space, and the only other thing nearby was a collection of scraggly looking sitrus berries and some rocks. Steven recognised them – they were rocks with iron traces in them. He had fed the same kind to his aron to strengthen his armour. 

“I don’t got no other room in my home, but feel free to grab some grass if ye want to make a nest for sleeping. Not too much though. Also you can have a berry, if you want.” 

“No thank you.” Steven sat down, and drew his legs against his chest. “… I’m not hungry.”

Lairon shuffled, looking uneasy, and hopped into his nest. With lots of purr-like little grunts, Steven watched as the large pokemon rearranged everything to his liking, burying himself into the dried grass. When he was done, he shook remaining grass of his head, and laid it on top of a carefully sculpted pile. 

“Could be normal, you know.” Lairon said. “Not bein hungry I mean. I’ve never met a ghost type – I dunno if they get hungry.”

“Phoebe fed her Pokemon berries.” Steven said. He was drawing in the sand on the ground, the tip of his claw leaving scratches in the rock. “I just – I never thought to ask about the specifics. I never thought it could happen to humans-… to me.”  
It had been in the myths, of course, but they were tinted. There were rarely any stories of people and Pokemon that came back from death for good and kind deeds. Ghost types played dangerous tricks, lured people into traps, sucked positive energy from a room – and Steven didn’t intend for any of that. 

“Human, huh?” Lairon said. “I bet that doesn’t make things any less confusin’. Humans are probably the only Pokemon that can only talk with other humans. And the only kind that builds so many things, and lugs around a pack of assembled Pokemon. How in the name o Groudon do yer kind keep a Seviper an a Zangoose from murderin’ each other?” 

“We just…. I don’t know. Once a pokemon has been cap-, befriended, things just smooth out. We have food made for Pokemon, they don’t have to hunt.” Steven looked up from where he had been boring a hole into the ground with his eyes. “Are… do Sableyes have enemies like that?”

Lairon stared at him. “Egglet, I’ve been living on my own for as long as my momma left me ‘n my sibs to fend for ourselves. The only other Pokemon I know any details about are Spheals ‘n Wingull, and that’s because the blasted idiots can’t respect claimed spaces. I don’t know the nearest thing about Sableye’s, other than that yer not livin’ up to the whole ‘mischievous trickster’ rumours.” 

There was a pause where they were both quiet, until Lairon broke it. “So, uh… If you don’t find it rude of me to ask… What happened to ye?”

“I was just exploring a cave. With my Pokemon.” Steven replied dully. “I’m a geologist – I study rocks. I made a discovery and was big – it was something really special. A perfectly shaped gemstone, almost like a marble, and it had no right at all being where it was. There was an Earthquake, the cave started to collapse, and we got trapped.”

“…And then you woke up here?”

Memories flashed through Steven – the lack of air, the straining of his lungs as he tried to draw in air, the soft noises of fear and worry from his Metagross-   
“My pokemon could still be down there. My death could have happened just minutes ago, or hours ago, or days ago. Or years.” The last words had become whispers. “And I’m a pokemon. A stranger in my own body.”

“At least ye came back to make sure they were alright, didn’t ya?” Lairon said. “Humans keep in touch with their siblings and their ma, right? You can look em up and see if they know about, erm, the accident. You know where yer old human nest is right?”

Steven’s ears twitched upwards. 

“If they’ve been found or rescued already, you can look into movin’ on. If not, you can return to Plan A, and go see if you can rescue them on your lonesome, ye?”

“…Yes.” Steven looked down at the scratches that his aimless doodling had produced. His own name was written there, just as neat as if he’d doodled with a twig in beach stand. A bit of hope flared. “Even if I can’t talk to them, I can still write!”

“I’ll assume that that’s good then, whatever it is.” Lairon said. “Now get some rest. Don’t wake me up and if you need to eat a berry keep it to one, alright? There’s only two bushes on this rock. Good night!”

Steven wished Lairon good night as well, and tried to sleep. After so many events, it happened easier than he expected, even though he’d only been awake for a few hours. Maybe he would wake up in the Centre, like regular human Steven, with his father sitting near his bed and his Pokemon crowding the room.   
That would sure be something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter that I had written, though I had to rework it a lot before I was satisfied. I hope you enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> This is an older story I started back when Omega Ruby rekindled my love for Gen 3. It is still one of my most favourite Pokemon gens, and Steven was always my real Champion. ( Sorry not sorry Wallace. )|
> 
> Since this is an older work, some part of it are unrefined and unwieldy. I will not spend endless time trying to fix it until it reaches my current standard of quality because I would be better off just rewriting the entire thing. Despite that I hope you enjoyed this! 
> 
> The next chapter will be up as soon as I have edited it to be palatable.   
> I can be contacted on my writingblog; insecwrites.tumblr.com


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